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Effective Presentations

Everything is coming together. You have prospected, contacted and now, finally you get to do your presentation. You have gathered all the information to present your product or service, but how do you do so in a way that is truly effective? Here are a few tips to help you do an effective presentation:

Keep It Simple

Keep the presentation informative, yet simple. You might know all the minute details on how your product or service works, but now is not the time to go into that in extreme detail for a couple reasons.

If your plan is complex, cumbersome and loaded with details, your client’s decision will also be complex, cumbersome and loaded with details. Keep it simple and make it simple for them to make a decision to work with you.

Also, if you begin talking too many details with someone who is not detail oriented, you will talk them into and out of working with you in the same conversation. Watch for eyes glazing over.

Follow the 4 Steps to the Anatomy of a Presentation

Uncover your prospect’s pain

Before you ever go into what you and your products and services can do, you have to find out what is motivating them as prospects, their why. There is some reason why they are talking to you. What is it that they have too much of or not enough of? There is something in their life that is causing them discomfort or dissatisfaction. What is it for the person or people you are presenting to? It is imperative that you find out. Think about all the features and benefits of your product or service. By asking your prospect some High Yielding Questions, you are able to quickly uncover their pain and check those items off mentally on your features and benefits list that are important to them. You want to make sure you highlight the right things in your presentation.
Present the solution

Tell them why your company, your product or service, or you are a solution for their pain. If you have skipped step 1, then you will spend your time going down a laundry list of all the features and benefits without really connecting to their needs and you will appear to have a one-size fits all approach. Remember to keep it simple and don’t go into too many details, yet give them enough information so they can see that you really do have a solution for them.

Determine their interest

This is where you summarize the main points and recap how these things will be of benefit for them. Then ask them how they see your company or product or service benefiting their challenges. This will insure that you did a good job in steps 1 and 2. If you didn’t make a good connection between their pain and what you offer, this is a good time to go back to step 1 and ask more High Yielding Questions.

Call to Action

Don’t let the presentation just fizzle to an end, make sure you ask the prospect if they are ready to get started today. If they are not, then set up a time to follow up. A “no” is often a “not yet” which is fine, just make sure you follow up.

Practice

“Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong.”

Don’t forget to practice, practice, practice. You will be more confident and relaxed and your prospect will be able to sense that. Learn to LOVE Practice!

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Email Etiquette For Business: 5 Tips To Help You Present Yourself As A Professional

As the world becomes more and more hurried, it seems that email etiquette for business is falling by the wayside. However, keeping the rules of business letter writing alive and applying them to your email communications is a great way to present yourself in the most professional light possible and to make your clients and associates feel respected.

Here are 5 tips to help you write better, more professional, and polite email business letters.

1) Greetings and Salutations

Remember when you were in school and learned how to write a letter? The first thing you learned was the salutation – the “Dear so and so.” While “Dear sir,” isn’t likely to be the greeting you use in an email, you do still want to include a salutation. Common salutations, if you are communicating with this person for the first time include:

Dear,
Hello,
Thank you,

Proper email etiquette for business will include a comma after the salutation or a period at the end depending on the greeting. For example, “Dear Anne,” or “Thank you, Anne.”

2) Use Complete Words and Full Phrases

While it’s common to use acronyms or text speak like LOL and TTFN, just don’t do it. This is appropriate for friends and family, not for business associates. Even if you become friends with your customers, in general, keep the use of acronyms to a minimum and even then use them only after your customer or associate has.

3) Check Spelling and Punctuation

It takes five seconds to hit the spell check button on your email toolbar. If you have frequent misspellings and poor grammar you’re making an indelible impression on your associate or client that you may not be able to remove. Do your best to put your best foot forward in your email communications. A quick spell check and grammar check just tells your client you take the time to communicate effectively and correctly, you’re a professional and your communication with them is important to you.

4) Get To the Point

Respect the time of your business associates and clients. That doesn’t mean you jump right into the meat of your email though. Make sure you still include a friendly sentence or two to inquire about how the person is doing or to introduce yourself. This is courteous and expected of you. However, it’s also important to get to the point of your email as quickly as possible.

Time is our most precious and valuable commodity because we cannot get it back once it is gone. Show your associates you understand that.

5) Closing Remarks

Finally, once you’ve wrapped up what you have to say, it’s time for the good old-fashioned closing. Sincerely is considered a bit too old-fashioned in this day and age, but the following are quite acceptable:

Regards
Best
Best regards
Warm regards
Thank you

When writing an email to a client, prospect, or business associate, it is important to make sure you present yourself in the best light possible. That means spending a little extra time on your communications and following a few simple email etiquette for business rules.

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Tips for Making a High-Impact, Money-Saving Presentation Booklet

Your boss asks you to present your company’s services to a prestigious potential client. You’re speaking at a seminar for professionals in your industry. You’re introducing your project to the board of directors for approval. Whatever the scenario, many of us will have to present our knowledge to others in a business setting at some point.

Whether you’re presenting to a group of colleagues or to clients, you want to deliver your information effectively.

Creating a professional presentation booklet can help you organize your message and keep your audience’s attention. They can peruse a read-along booklet during your presentation, then take the booklet with them to reinforce your message. Or you can add extra information in a presentation booklet so they’ll continue reading after you’ve sparked their interest in the topic.

Here are some suggestions for an effective and professional presentation booklet:

- Make your booklet a hard copy of the PowerPoint you’ll be projecting

- Give them an overview of your company or the background of your presentation

- Leave space in the booklet so your audience can write thoughts or take notes during your presentation, if appropriate

- Focus your booklet on statistics and facts related to your presentation

- Be sure to leave contact information or action you want them to take at the end of the presentation booklet

Now that you have ideas for what to put in your presentation booklet, there are several ways to actually make one:

You can take your information to a local printing company or printing website and have them create the booklet for you. This can quickly become expensive, depending on the size and quality of your presentation booklet. Color print, paper type, and binding type are some of the variables that will affect the price.

If you (or your company) are planning to create a presentation booklet more than once, it may be more economical to get the materials to make it yourself. You may already own or have access to a higher quality printer.

You will need to purchase a binding machine (a largish purchase), and the supplies for the booklet (paper and covers, nominal purchases). After these initial costs, you will enjoy the convenience and relatively low expense of producing your own presentation booklets.

Another benefit to creating your own presentation booklets is quality. Many printing companies allow for defects in your order. And if they don’t get it right the first time, it may be too late by the time you receive the remake. When you create your own presentations, you get to decide what the final product is, and you’ll be able to produce them as quickly as you like.

I’d recommend using the Unibind XU138. The great thing about a Unibind system is that you can quickly and easily create professional looking hard or soft cover books. You can also reuse the binding and add or remove pages from your booklet if you need to change the content.

Warning: a poor quality presentation booklet won’t help your presentation – it will draw attention away from your message! Demand the highest quality from your printer, or do it yourself to ensure that it’s done right.

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